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In an op-ed today, Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Albany, blasts former President George W. Bush and Republicans, saying Bush-era tax cut for high earners have failed to create the promised economic prosperity.

Tonko writes, “I have one question for President George W. Bush and the Republican leadership in Congress. Where are the jobs?”

The lawmaker goes on to say that GOP economic policies have turned a $128 billion surplus $1.3 trillion deficit and expanded the gap between rich and poor.

He urges Republicans to stop holding up an extension of middle-class tax cuts unless tax cuts for the wealthy are kept as well.

“Let’s restore sanity and fairness to the tax cut conversation. We simply cannot afford to hand over the bank vault to our nation’s millionaires and billionaires while the middle class picks up spare change,” Tonko says.

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